Mission accomplished for Stroll after reaching Q3

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Williams' rookie driver Lance Stroll was delighted to attain his personal ambition for this weekend's Grand Prix weekend in China.

"It was a very good day I think. The goal for today was definitely Q3 and we achieved it," said the Canadian teenager.

The loss of Friday practice because of poor weather conditions had denied Stroll the chance to familiarise himself with the layout of the Shanghai International Circuit.

"Yesterday was a difficult day for everyone with no running," he told Sky Sports F1 on Saturday. "My first time here coming in this morning having a good FP3 and then I go to qualifying."

Stroll said that qualifying had been a mixture of "highs and lows" for him.

"The first run in Q1 wasn’t good. I was just getting into it and didn’t deliver the lap I knew I could deliver," he explained. "We had to put that extra set [of tyres] on that we didn't really want to.

"On the second set of tyres, I just kind of calmed down and it was an amazing lap; I was really happy with the car.

"Then moving on to Q2, we had a good session. To get into Q3 the time was a tenth slower than my Q1 lap, but I knew it was good enough.

"Since I had used two sets [of tyres] in Q1, I only had one [set left] for Q3, so I just went for it.

"I made a few mistakes in my lap. It really wasn't the lap time we know we could do. But the goal was already accomplished getting into Q3, and I'm happy with that."

Qualifying: Hamilton thwarts Vettel for pole in China

The prospect of rain for Sunday's Chinese Grand Prix presents a whole new challenge for Stroll.

"I'm looking forward to it!" he insisted. "First race in the wet for me in Formula 1. Only one run yesterday in my life in a Formula 1 car in the wet so looking forward to some more tomorrow.

"It's going to be a long race, it should be a tricky race, hopefully a good one."

With his veteran team mate Felipe Massa qualifying in sixth, it's further confirmation that this season Williams are the next-best team behind the Big Three - Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull.

"It's still early days but we definitely have a good race car," said a Cautious Stroll. "The team worked really hard over the winter and we're working hard at the track.

"The results are showing: both cars in Q3 I think was a very good day for the team.

"I wouldn't say we're comfortably the fourth team because I think this year it's very tight between Renault, Force India is right there, Haas in Australia was superquick in qualifying."

GALLERY: All the pictures from Saturday in Shanghai

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.